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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §5.2.26.pr

Recovering the Value of a Manumitted Slave on Void Wills

Passage 990 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text discusses an equitable relief for an heir-designate who had already fulfilled a condition to manumit a slave before the testament was declared void, allowing them to recover the value of the slave from the manumitted person.

[IDEM libro octauo disputationum. ] §5.2.26.prSi sub hac condicione fuerit heres institutus 'si Stichum manumiserit' et manumisisset, et posteaquam manumisit inofficiosum uel iniustum testamentum pronuntietur: aequum est huic quoque succurri, ut serui pretium a manumisso accipiat, ne frustra seruum perdat.
[BY THE SAME AUTHOR in his Eighth Book of Disputations.] If someone was instituted heir under this condition, "if he should manumit Stichus," and he had manumitted him, and after he manumitted him, the testament is declared inofficious or unjust: it is equitable that relief should be granted to this person also, so that he may receive the price of the slave from the manumitted person, lest he lose the slave in vain.

Notes

  1. §5.2.26.prmanumisisset — The subjunctive pluperfect in the conditional clause, representing a past factual assumption that the condition for the institution of the heir (the manumission of Stichus) had already been fulfilled, whereas the subsequent declaration `pronuntietur` is in the present subjunctive.
  2. §5.2.26.prsuccurri — The passive infinitive of the intransitive verb `succurrere` (to run to help, relieve) which governs the dative. It is used impersonally, with the recipient of the relief expressed by the dative `huic`. Together, it forms the subject clause of `aequum est`.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §5.2.26.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:5.2.26.pr

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